


The Kids Are Not Okay

by Jessicatastic613h



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Harry Potter Next Generation, Hogwarts, Multi, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-04-01 00:23:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13986468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jessicatastic613h/pseuds/Jessicatastic613h
Summary: You thought the story was over...It's 19 years later and the story's just beginning. A boy struggling to live up to his name, a family being torn apart, and dangers soon approaching- the war might be over, but things are far from slowing down





	1. Chapter 1

One. 

Like every other day of his life, Albus Severus Potter awoke to noise.

Silence was a rare and sacred thing in the Burrow, with twelve kids, ten adults, and a particularly obnoxious cat belonging to the only slightly less obnoxious Lily; and few mornings didn't begin with a scream or yelp or curse (magical and/or otherwise). Albus laid in bed, his eyes still shut tight, and as most mornings, he could always persuade himself that the morning didn't really begin until he opened them. Above him, he could hear his brother James's heavy breathing that signaled the beginning of his daily morning workout regimen, and with push-up, Albus counted along in his head.

One... Maybe if I don't open my eyes it won't really be September first and I won't really have to go to Hogwarts and nobody will realize that I'm actually rubbish at magic even if my dad is freaking Harry Potter.

Two... Maybe I was switched at birth, why else would I be the only one in his household who hasn't be buzzing for the past month about going to Hogwarts. And how else could anyone explain how the son of Harry Potter could end up being such a failure. (Even if he did look like the split-image of Harry, right down to the striking green eyes that Albus absolutely hated.)

Three... And what will the tabloids think- the newspapers will go crazy when they realize the truth, -Albus Severus, the only Potter in the universe who can't do magic for the death of him- They'll just love it.

Four- And what if James is true- what if I'm not in Gryffindor, what if I'm a Hufflepuff, or maybe even a Slytherin- I bet the kids at school will just love that, and what will mum and dad say, when they realize that their own son is such a disappointment. James hasn't even started his Second year and he's already just about sure he'll make the quidditch team, and even little Lily's probably already better at magic and flying and everything else than I am, what if- At the sound of their Aunt Hermione's voice above all the chaos, called them down for breakfast, James sat up and dusted himself off, and Albus sat up too, feeling a slight chill on his neck. A wind blew through the slightly ajar window, as if trying to blow his fears away. Not working. He muttered to himself as he stood up to close it.


	2. Chapter 2

Two 

In the room above him, James crossed off another day. With his permanent marker he dotted eighteen boxes until he reached the words he had scrawled months before. !!!!Quidditch tryouts!!!!! He read out loud to himself, as if saying the words out loud would make them true. Letting out a sigh, he rolled up his calendar, and jammed it in last inch of space in his trunk, clicking it closed, and fell back in bed, trying to take in the last few moments of sleep. 

Eighteen days. Eighteen short days before the moment that would make or break his whole life. Eighteen till he was finally able to prove to his parents, himself and the whole wizard world at large wrong. Prove that he, James Sirius Potter was just as good a wizard as his father. 

He would prove the tabloid wrong. He would prove the world wrong. He would prove himself wrong, that voice that told him that he would never be the son his father wanted him to be. And maybe, just maybe, Dad would finally start smiling again. 

He might not have the green eyes or the magical ability, but he had the determination, and the will power, to be a great one. One day, his name would end up in the history books, right next to his dad's.


	3. Chapter 3

Three. 

There was a bathroom jammed between the kitchen and the den, and Rose had spent the last three hours in there, or more specifically, in the bathtub, surrounded by a pile of textbooks she had *ahem* borrowed from her mother's library. 

It wasn't a particularly comfortable position, but during the summer months when the Burrow was flooded with family and neighbors and friends, she had found a quiet haven here. And so, almost as a tribute to the quickly fading summer and what was to come, she had found herself here yet again. Tomorrow she would, for the first time in her life, wake up not between the familiar walls she had spent just about all of her short eleven years, but in Hogwarts. Even the word felt magical, different. Even at the thought of it, Rose felt butterflies in her stomach that were slowly growing into large moths, fluttering around in there. 

Calm down. She told herself. She was the first-born daughter of Hermione and Ron Weasley. She was smart. She was good at magic. But strangely, even now, with the smell of burning breakfast and voices flooding downstairs, signaling another day, Rose paused before exiting.


	4. Chapter 4

Lily Potter heard her father's scream from across the hall and identity knew that today was not going to be a good day. It seems like, these days, any good days were far and few in between. 

Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she slumped out of bed, enraging the cat in her lap, who meowed in protest, and then promptly went back to sleep.   
"Sorry Ruby." Lily whispered, and make her way across the hall, and knocked twice, and then, twice again. No answer.   
With that, Lily Potter knew that today was going to an extremely bad day.   
Lily swung open her door, and her father's bedroom flooded into her consciousness. Even since her mother had left for work, the bedroom had been in a constant state of chaos. And that had been a month ago- a month of extremely bad days, one after another. 

"Morning, Daddy." Lily said, keeping her voice cheerful. Her father sat up, rubbing her eyes, and stared at her.   
"What are you doing awake this early, Lily, can't you go back to bed."  
Lily sighed, "Well, Dad, it's actually already ten o' clock. I think that's not considered early anymore."

Harry Potter muttered a few curse words that Lily was quiet sure she wasn't supposed to hear, and stumbled out of bed, reaching across blindly. "God-damn it, now where did I out those darn glasses."

"Dad, you haven't worn glasses since February, remember, you said they were always a bother and so you got those contacts."

"I know, I know that." Harry snapped, and then he let out a breath, glancing around him. 

"You okay, dad?" Lily asked softly, already knowing the answer, that her father was far from okay. 

His face softened now, contorting into something that could have been a smile. "I'm fine. Fine. Fine." 

 

Lily wasn't sure if he was talking to himself or to her, but neither of them believed him.


End file.
